1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods of power distribution control.
2. Description of Related Art
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, portable wireless telephones, such as cellular (analog and digital) telephones and IP telephones, can communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Further, many such wireless telephones include other types of devices that are incorporated therein. For example, a wireless telephone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Also, such wireless telephones can include a web interface that can be used to access the Internet. As such, these wireless telephones include significant computing capabilities.
As the demand for new high performance features increases in portables systems, system level power management has become increasingly important in order to reduce power consumption and prolong battery life. Reducing power consumption of digital processes in portable electronic devices can improve the battery live and increase the available power budget for other features, such as color displays and backlighting, for example. To reduce power consumption, circuit designers have adopted various power management techniques.
A typical integrated circuit includes a substrate, which may include a plurality of embedded circuit structures, as well as one or more integrated circuit devices that are electrically coupled to the substrate. To reduce power consumption by such embedded circuit structures, one technique uses a plurality of power regulators to generate a plurality of power supplies, which may be utilized to satisfy power requirements of the various embedded circuit structures. Since at least one of the embedded circuit structures may use less power than others, a lower power supply may be provided to that structure, thereby conserving power in the overall power budget for other components. However, high voltage regulators consume a large amount of chip area.
Another technique to reduce power consumption involves switching power supplies to disable power to an embedded circuit structure when power is not needed. However, as semiconductor fabrication technologies achieve smaller and smaller devices, high voltage switches may be difficult to scale. Moreover, such switches contribute to layout and routing complexity.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an improved power distribution system and method that reduces power loss.